INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS
PUBLIC HEALTH
2003: The early days of SARS outbreak in China
This story, published in February 2003, outlines the early days of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in Guangdong Province and documents how the government’s silence led to chaos, confusion and widespread rumors. Journalists Chen Hai and Jiang Hua, reporting for Southern Weekly, describe the impact on society of the new and unknown illness…
2005: The news article that led to the strengthening of safer medical practices in Chinese hospitals
In 2005, an AIDS epidemic in Xingtai, Hebei province had over 200 infected patients, including children. Investigative journalist Wang Keqin used official government documents, several years of media reports, and interviews with doctors as well as 34 AIDS patients to prove that the epidemic was caused in large part by Xingtai hospitals which were using…
2008: The news article that led to the strengthening of Chinese food safety standards
This news article accused the Sanlu Group, one of the country’s largest dairy producers, of selling a milk powder contaminated with melamine, a poisonous substance that sickened an estimated 300,000 children in China and killed at least six infants in 2008. After the article was published, the government identified a total of 22 companies whose…
2016: A vaccine scandal that shook China’s health system
While on probation, Pang conspired with her daughter to trade 260,000 of non-refrigerated vaccines to 18 provinces, and made 570 million RMB (75 million EUR) from the trade. The vaccines were feared ineffective due to the improper transport and storage, though unlikely to cause toxic reactions.
2020: How a Wuhan doctor brought China to realise the seriousness of the Covid-19 epidemic
This story by Renwu Magazine sets out how Ai Fen became the first whistleblower. Ai Fen is a doctor at the Central Hospital of Wuhan. In December 2019, she was one of the first doctors to encounter patients infected with the virus that would become known as COVID-19. On 30 December, she received a diagnostic…
2020: In the aftermath of the Covid-19 outbreak, China News Weekly revealed how authorities failed to contain the virus
The cover story of China News Weekly put together a detailed timeline for the month leading up to 23 January 2020, the day that the city of Wuhan closed down. The story presented the local government’s response and what officials from the local and national Center for Disease Control and Prevention did in those critical…